NorseQuest (A Norse Xianxia)
- Thread starter I.F. Ister
- Start date
- Original Fantasy Action
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- Tags
- norse mythology (mythology) original xianxia cultivation western cultivation ask sirihand did your mother tell you anything? discussion pleases yggdrasil farming gloating gets people killed granary management hubris is a coward's word you will die norsemen do not die when they are killed the qm has a bad memory the qm is bad at math viking courtroom drama (legal drama) vikings
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Assuming they don't have a way around that, yes, but only at the -2 level would it be an unbeatable obstacle (they can still whittle down armor at 2 per hit, and do it fast, then whittle Endurance down at 1 per...a pack of 3 can rapidly do a lot of damage like that in a 'death of 1000 cuts' kind of way).
[X] Plan Whoops Wrong Hill
I imagine there will be further ranks - champion, shamans and so on. Plus formations might allow for attacks that combine damage into one big strike or something. But nothing wrong with planning based on the info we have.
Sirrocco
Pedantic
The thing I notice is... we'd never heard of these guys. at the same time... they're just sort of generally available to The Enemy whenever? They're managing to maintain population without being found in spite of randomly being sent on kill missions? I's possible that the Enemy just hides them, but I feel like they're maybe being drawn up from the earth or something.
COmbine that with the fact that we know one of the other Great Tools of the Enemy were "The Sea Peoples" and I start seeing... an elemental theme?
Like, right now we've seen Earth, we've seen Water, and we've seen Metal (in Steel). I have no idea if this actually means anything, but I notice it.
COmbine that with the fact that we know one of the other Great Tools of the Enemy were "The Sea Peoples" and I start seeing... an elemental theme?
Like, right now we've seen Earth, we've seen Water, and we've seen Metal (in Steel). I have no idea if this actually means anything, but I notice it.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I agree that these almost certainly aren't living people with lives they go back to when they aren't fighting. They may have been once, but I'm not even sure of that (they may just be constructs in the shape of people), and if they once were they aren't now. I don't think sending them is effort free at all, but it's a magical effort to bring them up from the Earth, perhaps reconstituting them from old bones or something.
The Sea Peoples weren't really elementally themed any more than the Norse are...both were just raiders that used boats. But an ongoing Earth theme for the enemy's minions...that I'm seeing. Plus the corruption of metal when it can since it doesn't like it, I think.
The Sea Peoples weren't really elementally themed any more than the Norse are...both were just raiders that used boats. But an ongoing Earth theme for the enemy's minions...that I'm seeing. Plus the corruption of metal when it can since it doesn't like it, I think.
- Location
- San Ramon, CA
...I just had a stupid, terrible thought. If there is some terrible sequence of events where Horra sends a stupid amount of bandits after us before we can testify against him, and we are somehow caught flatfooted with no clear way to retreat.
Halla: Leave now, or I shall unleash my forbidden technique!
Bandit: You don't scare us, girlie. Do your worst.
Halla: ...If you stoke all three of your aspects and direct your frami into your soul, you will generate a liquid called Odr-
*Nine Foemen suddenly show up and start attacking everyone*
Halla: Leave now, or I shall unleash my forbidden technique!
Bandit: You don't scare us, girlie. Do your worst.
Halla: ...If you stoke all three of your aspects and direct your frami into your soul, you will generate a liquid called Odr-
*Nine Foemen suddenly show up and start attacking everyone*
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
The funny thing is, I can see the Enemy doing that.
It doesn't care about these rando bandits, but it definitely doesn't want The Business to leak.
The question is if the Enemy's ability to throw goons at you for breaking Omerta regarding Cultivation is effectively arbitrarily high, or if it scales to threaten the people you told. (So telling Steinarr or Sten would be incredibly dangerous, but just spreading it around our household would be manageable with the right preparation)
No way to tell though until we've actually done it, which is why this fight is a blessing in disguise to us, since we can take advantage of it to identify how the Foemen operate.
I think our household now is also big enough that we can develop a Battle Formation?
The only hint we've gotten is that the Response will be immediate, but it won't necessarily be overwhelming, as long as we prepared accordingly.
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Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
You know, doing a quick review? A Conflict that was "Already ancient when the first rains fell?"
The Enemy is either Ymir, who actually survived Odin and his brothers dunking on him in this timeline and was turned into the Earth (And he was called Evil, and all his Descendents apparently--given how The Enemy is closely tied to the Earth, this is suspicious...), or Bergelmir, who was the only one of Ymir's sons who survived the flood of his blood when he was killed, and repopulated the Jotnar with his wife.
Like, the first thing Odin and his brothers did after dunking on Ymir was to use his body to forge the Earth and the Seas, AKA "This is when the Rains started." AKA "Whatever happened, it happened before Odin and his brothers did their Chaos Dunk because there was no weather back then."
And before then, the only real event was "Ymir spawns, chills out drinking from infinite rivers of milk from his giant magic cow, which eventually licks up the first humans from the frozen rime-stones of the horrible abomination that was water at the time, and Odin and his brothers are from the first generation of this, while the Jotnar are born from effectively spawning off of Ymir's body. Then Odin and his brothers kill Ymir and drown all but two of the Jotnar in his blood, then forge the Earth and Ocean from his remains"
The Enemy is either Ymir, who actually survived Odin and his brothers dunking on him in this timeline and was turned into the Earth (And he was called Evil, and all his Descendents apparently--given how The Enemy is closely tied to the Earth, this is suspicious...), or Bergelmir, who was the only one of Ymir's sons who survived the flood of his blood when he was killed, and repopulated the Jotnar with his wife.
Like, the first thing Odin and his brothers did after dunking on Ymir was to use his body to forge the Earth and the Seas, AKA "This is when the Rains started." AKA "Whatever happened, it happened before Odin and his brothers did their Chaos Dunk because there was no weather back then."
And before then, the only real event was "Ymir spawns, chills out drinking from infinite rivers of milk from his giant magic cow, which eventually licks up the first humans from the frozen rime-stones of the horrible abomination that was water at the time, and Odin and his brothers are from the first generation of this, while the Jotnar are born from effectively spawning off of Ymir's body. Then Odin and his brothers kill Ymir and drown all but two of the Jotnar in his blood, then forge the Earth and Ocean from his remains"
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Sirrocco
Pedantic
...and that's interesting because why wouldn't the Enemy send overwhelming force? We know that it's reource-strapped in some fashion. It cannot afford to intervene uselessly. So it seems like sending a non-overwhelmign attack would just be a waste, because half the time, the ones you send it against survive, and then they probably get stronger, and then the next time you have to send more.
We've heard (if I'm remembering correctly) that the Enemy can't just create foes out of nothing - they can only send whatever it is that they have at hand.
I don't know. I' trying to put this together in my head, and it's not quite working.
We've heard (if I'm remembering correctly) that the Enemy can't just create foes out of nothing - they can only send whatever it is that they have at hand.
I don't know. I' trying to put this together in my head, and it's not quite working.
Neat fight, foreman are scary....
But give great ideas!
Also, if they are really a hunting party... The ones we can't see are probably waiting around the river.
"Hey, Blackhand, do you know any trick that creates an area where it's harder to move? Our Mire Wars is one, but can we do something similar with fire, like when at the summer the heat makes it harder to work long, what with the heat draining the endurance of people?"
But give great ideas!
Hm...
Hey what are-
Cool, does this mean we can do it too?
Huh?
Uh... Guys?
Do we really want to give them more ammo?
Also, if they are really a hunting party... The ones we can't see are probably waiting around the river.
Huh, good to see those exist, despite our situation.
This... This gives me an idea.
"Hey, Blackhand, do you know any trick that creates an area where it's harder to move? Our Mire Wars is one, but can we do something similar with fire, like when at the summer the heat makes it harder to work long, what with the heat draining the endurance of people?"
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
Presumably, it would send Overwhelming Force if it could, but either it doesn't actually have as much information as it likes to think it does (Certainly, there would be no need for it to 'probe' if it already had your measure from the moment you showed up on its radar), or alternately, there's a risk of the Aesir noticing and Chaos Dunking on their assault if they throw too many out.
So it tries to get your measure through advancing probing attacks, and only goes for the Kill if it thinks it can pull it off before Someone Else Notices. It also has to weigh the possibility of an ambush on any reactive assault it does, and while it probably has arbitrary numbers of Foemen, its actual Elites are probably much less common, so it won't spend them if it thinks it doesn't need to.
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
Updated the Odr Mechanics post with new information.
In theory, that requires Training Dice though, which are in short supply at the moment. We can probably free up one a turn if we can come up with something good...but we may need an actual instructor for this one. We could ask Halfdan, he might have experience.
I can still see it being Nidhoggr, honestly. Or just something that predates the whole of the Norse cosmology (as the Neanderthal thing hints at). Or both.
It doesn't have perfect knowledge and we almost certainly aren't the only people in its sights. It's playing a resources management game of sending just enough to kill us without overspending and we hit so far outside our weight class that it's not calibrating properly.
I'm pretty sure it has to actually make Foemen, with limited resources, and so that expenditure is gone whether they win or not.
Not any more. If they were at one point they've definitely headed toward our current location by now, and given their speed, they thus won't be there any more.
In theory, that requires Training Dice though, which are in short supply at the moment. We can probably free up one a turn if we can come up with something good...but we may need an actual instructor for this one. We could ask Halfdan, he might have experience.
I can still see it being Nidhoggr, honestly. Or just something that predates the whole of the Norse cosmology (as the Neanderthal thing hints at). Or both.
It doesn't have perfect knowledge and we almost certainly aren't the only people in its sights. It's playing a resources management game of sending just enough to kill us without overspending and we hit so far outside our weight class that it's not calibrating properly.
I'm pretty sure it has to actually make Foemen, with limited resources, and so that expenditure is gone whether they win or not.
Not any more. If they were at one point they've definitely headed toward our current location by now, and given their speed, they thus won't be there any more.
We know every move the Enemy make has a cost. Makes sense it would try to send minimal effort. In any case, this is almost certainly a probing attack as has been foreshadowed a few times - we probably should make sure we hold stuff back and/or develop new capabilities rapidly after each encounter.
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
Yeah, it's pretty much an arms race. It can get a rough measure seemingly by observing your Orthstirr supply and Odr generation, but that's only one part of what a Norse Cultivator has access to.
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Not a bad idea. So far we've revealed a couple of fairly normal Trick Attacks, Reinforce Shield, Kindle Spinner, EWC, and depending on next turn maybe Halting Vortex, and Sagaseeker's new Rune (which is amazing). That's it.
A lot of those there aren't actually good counters to...like, you always want to be fast, wanting it even more doesn't change your plans much, and countering our mobility or Reinforce Shield is tricky. We should look out for perfect defense breakers next time if they see HV, and fire resistance or immunity in general (though honestly, if they had access to that I feel like they'd have used it this time...they have to know about our family's thing with fire already).
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The first good one anyway. It's the first time we went somewhere far away from our house with only one other person in a long time. We won't do that again, at least not for a bit.
- Location
- some computer lab
Oh yeah, it's entirely possible that these guys have been trying to track us down since Yule.
I.F. Ister
Fortifying The Thread
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- He/They
Oh man, the things I could respond to this with
Nope
'Yes, but that is not something that you are capable of learning right now, not with the current hugareida available to you.'
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- Location
- San Ramon, CA
Another possibility is that the Enemy has learned that if you send enough big guns from out of nowhere to attack someone, the neighbors start asking questions.
Thought so, probably needs firestorm for the area of effects stuff, but great to know.